The Fourth Plan to Solve the Crisis of North Kosovo

Abstract:There are three plans to solve North Kosovo crisis. They
are respectively autonomy, partition and territory exchange. The
paper gives the fourth plan: partition and territory exchange. The
plan includes two parts. One is partition: North Kosovo is been
partitioned off Kosovo and incorporated into Serbia. Two is
territory exchange:the Serbs enclaves south the Ibar River withPreševoValley. The plan is most
complete one to finish the ethnic contradiction of Serbia and
Kosovo.

North Kosovo is a region north
of the Ibar River with ethnic Serb majority. It includes the four
municipalities of North Kosovska
Mitrovica, Zvečan,
Leposavić and
Zubin
Potok. As North Kosovska
Mitrovica is a part of Kosovska Mitrovica Municipality
before the war, so to speak, North Kosovo includes three plus
municipalities. It is about one-tenth of Kosovo’s territory
(approximately 1,000 square kilometers) and a half of all Kosovo's
Serbs live there. Some Albanians live predominantly along the north
bank of the Ibar in Mitrovica and in one large village (Čabra) in
Zubin Potok.

By comparison with the Serb
enclaves south of the Ibar River, North Kosovo is adjacent to the
central Serbia. Since 2008 Kosovo declared of independence, the
Serbs of the North have insisted Pristina's authority. UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon initiated first negotiation on technology
issues.[1] As both sides' hostility, the negotiation is
indirect, chaired by UN Mediation Expert Andrew Ladley (New
Zealand) supervised by the head of UNMIK Zannier. Kosovo’s
institutions rejected the whole six-point
document.[2]

From this March, European Union
had taken charge of the first direct technology negotiation,
mediated by Counsellor in the European External Action Service
Robert Cooper. Though they had achieved some progresses, both sides
kept huge differences in Customs and boundaries.

July 25, Kosovo police special
unit suddenly took over two boundarycheckpoints: Jarinje (Gate
1) and Brnjak (Gate 31). September 16, European Union Rule of Law
Mission (EULEX) transported Kosovo customs officer and border
police by helicopter. Serbs built many barricades. NATO troops in
Kosovo (KFOR) dismantled the barricades many a time, provoking
clashes with local residents.

Continuous moderate German
Chancellor Merkel hardened her attitude to Serbia unexpectedly.
December 9, EU will decide whether gives Serbian candidacy status.
Serbia faces big blackmail. The North keeps the core to the Kosovo
matters. There are there plans to solve Kosovo crisis: autonomy,
partition and territory exchange.

The first plan is autonomy.
Ahtisaary plan designs limited autonomy to the Serbs. At present,
many people think it insufficient and support Ahtisaary plus, for
example former UK Europe Minister Denis Macshane.[3]
“Founder of peace and conflict studies” Johan Galtung recommended
Swiss model of cantonisation.[4] International Civilian
Representative Pieter Feith suggest Spain Catalonia
model.[5] Former UNMIK representative in Mitrovica
Gerard Gallucci provided a series of detailed recommendations that
are intended to facilitate implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan in
north Kosovo.[6]

But all above programs are still inadequate. North Kosovo needs a
regional parliament and government as International Crisis Group
(ICG) suggest.[7] I recommend Chinese Hong Kong model.
Besides integrated parliament and government, North Kosovo will
have full power of taxes, courts and customs.High degree of autonomy would be
need instead of limited or medium autonomy.

The second plan is partition.
North Kosovo will be partitioned off Kosovo and merged into Serbia.
The plan is a very old idea. U.S. ever proposed to partition Kosovo
according to which Serbia would get one third but Milošević
rejected.[8] The option was discussed
by Serbian ex-Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and EU Representative
Wolfgang Ischinger, recently by former U.S. Ambassador to Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia William D. Montgomery, Gerard
Gallucci[9] and former Austrian Vice-Chancellor Erhard
Busek. The first Serbian senior office who proposes formally to
partition is Ivica Dačić.

The west countries think that
the partition of Kosovo is a bad option, fearing a chain reaction.
They acknowledge Kosovo is asui generis case. For
example, “The European Council underlined its conviction
that resolving the pending status of Kosovoconstitutes a sui generis case that does not set
any precedent.”[10]This is a
paradox. If the independenceof Kosovo
hadn’t set any precedent, why could the
independenceof North
Kosovosetanyprecedent?

If not
draw a conclusion, the Serbs would declare possibly the
independence of North Kosovo. The International Court of Justice
had concluded that adoption of the declaration of independence
didn't violate any applicable rule of international law. There is
only one variable. If will the head of UNMIK declare the
independence of North Kosovo be invalid?

The third plan is territory
exchange. When partition plan is mentioned, Albanians reply that
exchanges Preševo Valley with North Kosovo. U.S. Federal
Representative Dana Rohrabacher advocates the view. This plan has
two big problems. Firstly, territory exchange plan is lesser much
benefits than partition plan for Serbia. Secondly, Preševo Valley
is a Serbian major route of transportation into Macedonia and
Greece, so that Serbia mustn’t give up it. ICG proposed to exchange
Gazivode Lake with Valley highway.[7] It is complicated
and baseless. Because Kosovo is asui generis caseas the
west said,PreševoValleycan’t be compared with
it.

One of
Serbian ethnic questions is the Albanians inPreševoValley,
and Kosovoethnic
questions are the Serbs in the North and the Serbs enclaves south
the Ibar River. Consequently, I put forward the fourth plan:partition and territory exchange. The plan includes two
parts. One is partition: North Kosovo is been partitioned off
Kosovo and incorporated into Serbia. Two is territory
exchange:the Serbs
enclaves south the Ibar River withPreševo Valley.[11]
But what will be swapped are the peoples not the lands.

Among four plans, autonomy plan
is most
realistic;partition plan is
simplest;territory exchange plan is most unjust; partition
and territory exchange plan is most complete. I prefer to the
second and fourth plans.